The Soweto Uprisings of 1976

This past Saturday, while many of us were enjoying the warmth and the World Cup, Children of Africa Day was celebrated around the world.

Officially known as the Day of the African Child, June 16th is an annual, internationally recognized event celebrating of the lives and spirit of African children.

The holiday was established in 1991 by the Organization of African Unity in commemoration of the roughly 20,000 South African children who demonstrated tenacity and courage in the face of oppression during the Soweto Uprisings of 1976. The uprisings were a series of student-led demonstrations against the apartheid regime's racially oppressive practices in schools. The Soweto youths protested against being taught in the colonial tongue and demanded their right to a better education. Met with unsparing police brutality, hundreds of black schoolchildren were killed.

Observing June 16th

Various communities have adopted this holiday as a tradition, and each celebration is quite unique. 

• At Mainsprings, a non-profit providing refuge, health care and education to around 50 schoolgirls in Kitongo, Tanzania, June 16th is celebrated as a communal birthday party. Many of the resident girls come from backgrounds of trauma and neglect and do not all know their birth dates, making June 16th a pretty special day.
• In South Africa, June 16th is known as Youth Day, a public holiday in which common threats to young people, such as drug abuse and crime, are openly addressed. The day is intended not only to celebrate the youth of today, but those whose efforts and legacy led to its establishment.
• The international non-profit Girls Not Brides observes June 16th as a day that "provides an opportunity for Girls Not Brides members to encourage action to address child marriage at the regional, national and local levels.” 
• Save the Children in Malawi organizes an annual street march featuring band music, theatrical performances and a children's parade, drawing many spectators and attention to the cause.
• Okakarara, Namibia, held a colorful public forum with speeches by the city's mayor and other government officials on June 16th this year. The event emphasized youth enrollment in schools and the imperative that parents be involved in educational reform.

Why This Day Matters

Nearly three decades later, Day of the African Child is still recognized in honor of the Soweto schoolchildren and as a symbol of the ongoing need for educational reform throughout Africa. Threats to children such as sex trafficking, extremist influence and military recruitment are all-too-common realities in high-risk areas impacted by poverty and corruption. Protecting children from these perils and building support for the improvement of educational opportunities provided to African children are essential to inducing tangible and immediate change. 

A recent article published by The Guardian underscores the need for justice systems in Africa to undergo reform, calling for the implementation of policies which protect and serve youths rather than vilifying them.

The article details how despite recent progress, "children with disabilities; victims of trafficking, sexual abuse and violence; orphans; refugees and migrants are routinely discriminated against: they are denied access to justice, to adequate legal representation and to fair trial."

The article notes that as disheartening as it is, "children remain predominantly invisible in the justice systems in Africa" and "that traditional, customary or religious justice remains largely unregulated and renders children particularly vulnerable." The article encourages legal reform as the means for bringing African justice systems "into line with international standards and principles such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child."

Sound Familiar?

The Trump administration has separated nearly 2,000 children from their parents in a six-week period. The recently declared "zero tolerance" crackdown on illegal immigration has law enforcement scrambling to obey Trump's order to end "catch and release" detentions of migrants. But in practice, "zero tolerance" really amounts to zero humanity.

Former First Lady Laura Bush, in addition to a growing number of Republican lawmakers and conservative news outlets, has condemned the inhumanity of family separation, calling on Trump and the Department of Homeland Security to prohibit such a policy at Border Patrol. 

To hear of such stories happening so close to home is more than distressing, but also serves as a wakeup call to those unaware of just how ubiquitous harsh realities like this are for children around the world. We should strive to apply Youth Day's 2018 theme — leave no child behind for African development — to a more universal imperative: leave no child behind, anywhere.